NEW DELHI: Decks were cleared for setting up a mega 39-member parliamentary panel to examine the two bills proposing simultaneous elections with the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha adopting resolutions in this regard.
The government decided to increase the Committee’s strength from 31 to 39 as more political parties expressed the desire to be part of the exercise to examine the two draft legislations that seek to fulfill the BJP’s long-cherished promise of holding simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies.
BJP leader and Lok Sabha member Bhratruhari Mahtab is tipped to be the chairman of the Joint Committee on the ‘One Nation One Election’ (ONOE) bills with former union ministers Anurag Thakur, Parshottam Rupala, P P Chaudhary, Manish Tewari and several first term lawmakers, including Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Bansuri Swaraj and Sambit Patra, as members.